In recent years great strides have been made in reducing the possibility of a fire aboard an aircraft. These improvements have dealt primarily with the use of new fire-resistant materials in the interior portions of the cabin. While these materials slow the spread of a fire, there is still the problem of toxic smoke produced by these smoldering materials. If the fire breaks out while the aircraft is at altitude, which can range up to 40,000-45,000 feet, a considerable amount of time will elapse before the aircraft can land and the passengers exit the aircraft. During this time there is a need to provide protection for the passengers. In the past the only protection offered was the use of a wet cloth placed over the face of the individual passengers and the instruction to lie as low to the floor as possible. However, it is vital during a panic situation to keep passengers in their seats as long as possible to avoid blocking access to the fire source and to maintain orderly evacuation. Also, in a crash landing where the aircraft is engulfed by fire there is no protection for the passenger from the time he leaves his seat to the point he is clear of the burning aircraft. Hence, he has no protection from falling droplets of burning materials, toxic gases, smoke inhalation or singed lungs. These are clearly not ideal solutions to the problem.
Basically, any smoke mask for a passenger on board an aircraft must have the following attributes.
1. It must be light and storable in a compact package. PA1 2. It must be capable of coupling to a source of fresh air from the aircraft's environmental control system. PA1 3. It must also have a self-contained air or oxygen supply which can be activated in an emergency once the aircraft is on the ground so that the passenger will have breatheable air during the exiting process. PA1 4. There must also be a means to disengage from the aircraft's environmental control system fresh air supply. PA1 5. Optionally, there must also be a way to couple the smoke mask to the existing aircraft oxygen mask should decompression, fire and/or smoke simultaneously occur. This connection is necessary to insure that air/oxygen is available during aircraft descent from altitude.
It must be noted that it is standard airline procedure not to drop oxygen masks or to release oxygen when there is fire onboard for fear of adding fuel to the fire. But should there be a decompression due to fuselage burn through or other reason, such as, a window blow-out, it may become a requirement to deploy and couple the existing oxygen mask to the smoke mask.
There are numerous prior art smoke masks. Examples of smoke masks that provide self-contained air or oxygen breathing apparatus are: U.S. Pat. No. 456,687, "Fireman's Smoke Protector," by W. Bader; U.S. Pat. No. 1,945,919, "Life Saving Mask," by M. F. Seijo; U.S. Pat. No. 2,850,011, "Respiratory Helment," by P. Schaefer; U.S. Pat. No. 3,521,629, "Heat and Smoke Protective Hoods," by H. I. Reynolds; U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,407, "Survival Support Device," by David E. Shonear; U.S. Pat. No. 3,976,063, "Escape Breathing Appartus," by John W. Henneman, et al. None of these, however, disclose a method of coupling to a source of external air.
U.S. Pat. No. 521,939, "Fire Mask," by G. Pozdena, et al, discloses a mask which can be hooked up to a source of external air, so this feature by itself is old in the art. But none appear to combine the two features which are a necessity onboard an aircraft.
Examples of aircraft oxygen masks are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 2,931,355, "System for Automatically Presenting a Breathing Mask to a Person in an Emergency," by A. E. Miller, et al; U.S. Pat. No. 3,073,301, "Aviation Quick Release Valve," by W. W. Hay et al; U.S. Pat. No. 3,981,302, "Emergency Breathing Means," by Herbert F. Veit; U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,237, "Passenger Emergency Oxygen Mask Drop Zone Extender," by Jack P. Courter.
Thus, it is a primary object of this invention to provide a smoke mask which is adapted to couple a source of fresh air from the aircraft's environmental control system while also providing a self-contained air supply.
It is another object of the subject invention to provide a smoke mask which can be coupled to a source of fresh air from the aircraft's environmental control system and to a self-contained supply of air and having means to disconnect the smoke mask from the source of fresh air.
It is another object of the subject invention to provide a smoke mask which can be coupled to a source of fresh air from the environmental control system of an aircraft and also incorporates a self-contained air supply and further having means to first actuate the supply of self-contained air and thereafter disconnect from the source of fresh air.
A still further object of the subject invention is to provide a smoke mask which can be coupled to a standard oxygen mask should a decompression occur concurrent with a fire onboard the aircraft or in which toxic gases or dense smoke are present.